document_title: Serena van der Woodsen

question_text: where did serena van der woodsen go to college

text: Serena van der Woodsen

text: Novel series[edit]

text: Serena is a tall, blonde, slim, and attractive teenage girl from the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. Many of the girls at the Constance Billard school accuse her of using her good looks as a means to secure everything she wants. She is not particularly academically skilled, but she is often told that she is not meeting her full potential. Her father runs the same Dutch shipping firm his great-great-grandfather founded in the 18th century, and her mother, Lillian van der Woodsen, is a socialite, art collector, and philanthropist. Her parents are on the boards of all major charities and art organizations in the city. The van der Woodsens reside at 994 Fifth Avenue, a ritzy, white-gloved doorman building directly across the street from The Met and Central Park. Serena and her family own half the top floor in a 14-room penthouse.

text: Serena has a nail-biting habit and also cuts her split ends off, mainly during her classes at Constance Billard. Though exposed and aware of the on-goings in the fashion world, she, unlike Blair, is not as meticulous about her fashion choices and wardrobe. She is described to have an effortless way about her. Serena is charismatic, charming, talented, funny, kind, care-free, and laid-back. These attributes help her to thrive and often, whether wittingly or unwittingly, attract older men.

text: Despite all of her attributes, Janet Malcolm of The New Yorker considers her "incandescently beautiful, exceptionally kind, and, in the end, it has to be said, somewhat boring."[1]

text: Television series[edit]

text: Characterization[edit]

text: People compares her character with Josh Schwartz's original it-girl creation, Marissa Cooper, stating that Serena "seems to have it all, but in addition to a party girl reputation, dark family secrets and a disregard for high society, Serena one-ups the sulky Coop with a history of BFF betrayal."[2] Jason Gay of Rolling Stone describes Serena as "the bad girl gone good(ish) who serves as Gossip Girl's wobbly moral compass." He added praise while describing her early strained relationship with Blair, stating, "Lively's Serena is a former queen bee who mysteriously disappeared from campus, only to return and find her spiteful ex-best friend, Blair (Meester), in charge."[3] With regards to her character's direction in the show, actress Blake Lively commented on her character's adventurous storylines during an interview with Nylon saying, "I feel ridiculous at times with her, because I'm, you know, killing someone or marrying someone, but I look like me. I'm like, 'Oh, this is absurd.'"[4][5] Vogue magazine considers Lively's upbringing to be advantageous to her character background and finds her "dazzling and worldly and optimistic". Her mother, a former model from Georgia would dress her differently and her differing fashion choices drew the attention of her classmates from the L.A. private school she enrolled in. "It was the only school where people were just downright mean to me," Lively stated. "They would make fun of my clothes because I dressed differently than the other kids."[6]

text: Music[edit]

text: In November 2012 concept music artist Marty McKay released a single called "Serena" featuring former Dr. Dre / Aftermath producer Focus.... The song is based on Serena's character in Gossip Girl. Due to a lack of promotion, the song did not garner much attention.[7]

text: Season 1[edit]

text: The first season introduces Serena as the beautiful, wealthy daughter of divorced parents who returns from boarding school. Her return sparks her old rivalry with her best friend, Blair. Serena's return is due to her younger brother, Eric van der Woodsen, who attempted suicide. She is considered unwelcome, most so by her old best friend Blair, who has always seen Serena as a threat to her reign as Queen Bee of Constance. After Serena successfully reconciles with her, Chuck Bass reveals to Serena that he knows the cause of her sudden departure prior to the first season - taking Nate Archibald's (Blair's boyfriend) virginity during a wedding,[8] and he attempts to kiss her. Serena manages to escape and runs into Dan, a St. Jude's student from Brooklyn, who often expresses cynicism about the lifestyle his wealthier classmates lead. Serena also finds a friend in Jenny Humphrey, Dan's younger sister. Nate eventually reveals his tryst with Serena to Blair, and Serena is ostracized in the first few episodes of the show.[9] Blair and Serena consistently fight and reconcile throughout the show's subsequent episodes, often dealing with Serena's tendency to overshadow Blair.[10] Serena and Blair reconcile after a heartfelt confrontation that prompted Serena to admit her mistake with Nate and leaving Blair in her time of need.[11]

text: Serena encounters a myriad of problems as her mother becomes engaged to Bart Bass,[12] who forces her family to adjust to living with Chuck, then she discovers her mother's relationship with Dan's father, Rufus Humphrey, and the complications of embarking on a relationship with Dan that is met with disapproval of her mother and her peers. Her relationship with Dan further reaches complications with the arrival of Georgina Sparks, a longtime friend who slowly reveals to viewers the real reason why Serena left Manhattan. Georgina drives her to commit the same mistakes she did before leaving Manhattan, ranging from partying excessively to drinking heavily, causing Serena to miss the SATs.[13] Serena confronts Georgina, only to draw her anger, prompting Georgina to destroy her relationship with Dan and blackmail her with knowledge of a particular event in the past: she accidentally killed a man.[14][15] Serena's constant lying in order to keep Dan from discovering her past eventually takes its toll on their relationship and Dan breaks up with her.

text: Blair eventually retaliates against Georgina with the help of Chuck and Nate and the intervention of Vanessa, successfully driving Georgina out of Manhattan.[14][16] Serena finally tells Dan the truth, only to discover during Lily's wedding, that he wants to end their relationship. A disappointed Serena attempts to move on throughout the summer.

text: Season 2[edit]

text: The second season shows Serena spending the summer with her family and Blair in the Hamptons, attempting to move on from her failed relationship with Dan. During a dramatic party, she and Dan briefly reconcile their relationship and return to New York.[17] Their relationship becomes public again but ends sooner than expected during a blackout as both are unable to move past the problems that previously ruined their relationship.[18] After a disastrous double date with Dan and a new transfer, Amanda, that ends with two of Blair's mean girls throwing Nair at Amanda and Dan accusing Serena of being behind it, Serena takes matters into her own hands and easily re-establishes herself as Queen, thus reigniting her rivalry with Blair. She has Dan publicly ostracized throughout the school.[19] Exposing herself to New York's high society, she meets Poppy Lifton, a socialite, and further strains her relationship with Blair during Eleanor Waldorf's fashion show when she and Poppy participate in it.[20] Serena and Blair eventually reconcile during a trip to Yale, where she didn't originally want to apply to but then took the opportunity to do so after Blair told her she couldn't possibly get in.[21]

text: An exhibit in Rufus' gallery has Serena finding new love with a childhood friend and artist, Aaron Rose.[22] She eventually reconciles with Dan but their friendship soon threatens her new love with Aaron, prompting him to escort her to a ball where Serena receives news from her mother of Bart's death.[23] During Bart's funeral, Aaron notices her continually drawn towards Dan and invites her to come with him to Argentina, which she accepts.[24] Upon their return, Serena breaks up with Aaron, and she is free to pursue a relationship with Dan. The two reunite, only to face the awkward discovery that they share a sibling.[25] Dan and Serena's relationship further suffers when she realizes their diverging college choices,[26] her continuous mistrust in him, and Dan's affair with a teacher that drives her to prematurely end their relationship.[27]

text: After throwing a disastrous Sweet Sixteen party for Jenny, Serena retreats to Spain with Poppy and Poppy's boyfriend, Gabriel Edwards. She returns to New York pursued by Gabriel after he broke up with Poppy and finds herself in a new relationship. During a party held by her mother, Serena discovers that Gabriel and Poppy have conned her mother's guests and calls on Blair's aid to obtain their stolen money, breaking up with Gabriel as she pursues Poppy. Blair reluctantly teams up with Chuck and a reformed Georgina, ignoring Lily's wishes that they let her handle it herself, ending with the plan completely back-firing: Serena is arrested, Poppy escapes and Georgina, becoming the scapegoat, eases back into her old ways.

text: A stubborn Serena chooses to stay in prison, until Dan bails her out and the two go to prom together. Her arrest soon adds to her fame as she becomes a local celebrity. On the day of graduation, Gossip Girl sends a blast that further ruins Serena and her friends' reputations. Declaring war on Gossip Girl, Serena finds herself the center of blame when a ticked-off Gossip Girl decides to drop every unreleased piece of gossip she had in store, creating further divide within the group. Sending a text to Gossip Girl, Serena calls a bluff that she knows Gossip Girl's identity, only for Gossip Girl to escape and warning everyone that she'll be pursuing them in college. She spends the summer leaving New York with Carter in pursuit of her father.

text: Season 3[edit]

text: Serena returns from her European adventure and a complicated relationship with Carter that indicates a possible romance. The Los Angeles Times noted her character's penchant for secrecy but stated "It initially seems as though Bad Serena is back, but we all know her highway of crazy behavior is always paved with good intentions."[28] Serena's relationship with Carter earns the disapproval of her peers but discovers redeeming qualities in him. Lily first assumes that she's preparing to go to Brown but defers from entering, preferring to stay in the city and find herself. During Lily's wedding, she discovers Carter's previous transgressions and she loses him when he chooses to make amends for his mistakes, breaking her heart in the process.

text: Serena eventually makes her time in New York useful by taking a job as a publicist, one that is short-lived as her relationships with both her friends and her family begin to erode. Her friendship with Blair and Nate crumble due to her job but finds even more trouble when she falls for Nate's married congressman cousin, Trippp van der Bilt (Aaron Tveit). Her relationship with him is tumultuous as both Nate and Blair fail in persuading her from continuing the affair. The affair ends when an offer to become a mistress from Trippp's wife makes her come to her senses. As Serena and Trippp return to New York, their car crashes, leaving her hospitalized. She survives and Nate proves his love for her and the two begin a relationship.

text: When Chuck's mother returns, Serena's resolve to find her father is reignited. Her decision slowly damages her relationship with Nate as she reconnects with Carter who is back to his old habits. Knowing that he has information regarding her father, the two work together to find him but is no longer interested in a relationship with Carter. Jenny's growing feelings for Nate also threaten her relationship with him when she makes every effort to steal Nate from her.One of the incidents where Jenny happens to ruin her relationship between her and Serena, also her and Nate is during Nate's "assassin" birthday bash. During his birthday party, Nate and Jenny happened to be the last two players. They got stuck in a supply closet. Jenny happened to be blocking the entrance. So, in order to win, she kissed Nate, which came unexpectedly for him. He happened to be head over heels in love with Serena, her stepsister. This threatened this relationship on many counts. Another instance is when they had just spent the drinking with Chuck and Nate. Nate and Jenny go back to the hotel room. Just as soon as Serena gets off the elevator, you see Jenny trying to kiss Nate. Then, Nate kicks Jenny out of the apartment to talk to his girlfriend in private.

text: During Dorota's wedding, Serena leaves with Carter and gives Jenny a message telling Nate that she has found her father. Serena soon finds out that Carter has been delaying her in an attempt to get close to her and leaves him, flies alone. Upon arriving, she is shocked to find her mother answering the hotel door, assuming that she had been in Canyon Ranch the entire time.

text: William van der Woodsen (William Baldwin) returns, making Serena happy but is unknowingly dragged into her father's plot to win back his ex-wife. The plot nearly works until Jenny, Blair, Nate and Chuck scheme against William, who had been trying to frame Rufus for adultery and intentionally misdiagnosing Lily, and William leaves. Her father's departure leads to Dan comforting her and reignites her feelings for him. Serena sleeps over at Dan's and wake up to find themselves in a compromising position, one that Jenny photographs and sends to Gossip Girl. As the photo spreads, Nate and Serena temporarily end their relationship and she joins Blair for a summer in Paris.

text: Season 4[edit]

text: Serena is seen spending her summer in Paris with Blair, reluctant to tell Blair that she has enrolled in Columbia, something that Blair fears will have them return to their high school pettiness, when she receives news that Chuck might be dead. After an unfortunate double date involving a handsome royal, Blair eventually forgives her. Chuck's arrival and a visit to a Parisian morgue confirms that he is alive but Serena pursues him in hopes of convincing him to return to New York when he tries to run away to London. She returns to New York having made her decision between Dan and Nate but her decision becomes irrelevant when she sees them with their new respective significant others, Vanessa and Juliet Sharp (Katie Cassidy), a girl with a personal vendetta against Serena.

text: Serena's enrollment in Columbia has her face Juliet's many attempts at getting rid of her, ranging from excluding her from an exclusive society along with driving Blair against her, exposing her relationship with her professor, Colin Forrester (Sam Page), who happens to be Juliet's cousin to get her kicked out, and spreading various rumors about Serena, who manages to evade these attempts. Juliet then recruits Jenny and Vanessa and succeed in gaslighting her into toying with Dan and Nate's feelings, attempting to take a foundation position from Blair, and returning to her old partying habits. Serena is rehabilitated while Dan and Blair subsequently discover Juliet's reasons for ruining Serena. Serena was supposedly in an illicit, but not ever consummated, relationship with Juliet's half-brother and Serena's boarding school English teacher, Ben Donovan (David Call) and was arrested when Lily forged an affidavit that falsely accused Ben of statutory rape, out of concern for Serena.

text: The holidays has Serena trying to figure out how to release Ben from prison and her relationship with Lily is yet again strained. Serena and Dan put a possible return to their relationship on hold, knowing that they might not have the same chance of loving and trusting each other. Meanwhile, Ben's release from prison reignites Serena's feelings for him and they pursue a loving, yet troubled relationship. Serena's relationship with Ben slowly erodes when she receives news from Vanessa that he is responsible for hurting Nate's father in prison and when Ben's mother, Cynthia, raises Ben's personal troubles while at the same time seeking to exonerate him. Serena becomes proud of her mother when Lily decides to face the consequences of sending an innocent Ben to prison. Serena and Ben's relationship eventually ends due to family complications.

text: Serena's cousin, Charlie Rhodes, comes to stay with Serena's family for a while. Charlie helps Serena find out that Dan and Blair have had a secret romance, causing a fight between Serena and Blair. Serena continues to use Charlie as a spy until noticing that Charlie is starting to act exactly as Serena and steals Serena's dress. In the season finale, Serena gets Charlie help with a medical condition, though it is later revealed that Charlie is really Ivy, and Ivy is just acting. Later, while walking the streets of Los Angeles, Serena gets offered a job in Hollywood where she decides to move to.

text: Season 5[edit]

text: This section is too long. Consider splitting it into new pages, adding subheadings, or condensing it.  (March 2015)

text: In Season 5, Serena is working as a film producer's assistant in Los Angeles and spending her free time with Nate and Chuck. Although Serena’s boss, Marshall, is difficult to please, his boss, Jane, promotes Serena after she succeeds at a task that Marshall failed. Later, she runs into Charlie and convinces her to move with her back to New York.

text: When Dan tells Serena, Nate, Blair, Chuck, Rufus and Lily that he wrote a book about his life and their roles in it, Serena is offended when he portrays her as a self-centered, promiscuous party-girl and is even more upset when Blair tells her that's exactly who she's been. After this revelation, she stops speaking to Dan. This cannot last, however, when her boss, Jane, requires Serena to get the movie rights to Dan's book. He agrees eventually saying that he trusts her and she gives him her word to protect him and his work. However when Serena's boss tries to smear Dan's character and his real life image in the movie, she kills the deal to protect him, but when Dan finds out, he accuses her of killing the movie because of the negative way she is portrayed. Heartbroken over his accusation, she reveals that her real reason for killing his movie was to protect him, not herself, then walks away.

text: After being fired by Jane, Serena is hired by Nate's boss, Diana Payne, to start a blog based on her life in order to take down Gossip Girl. Later, Nate and Serena discover a list of sources for Gossip Girl, which would be the silver bullet in Diana's campaign against Gossip Girl. They struggle over whether or not to use it and ultimately decide it would be too damaging to release. The list is leaked anyway and the two accuse each other before Blair discovers that it was Louis who leaked Gossip Girl's list of sources. Charlie encourages Serena to start dating in order to motivate her for her blog and she begins dating a guy named Max that she met on the street, not knowing that Max is actually Charlie's ex-boyfriend. Diana arranges for Max to meet Serena at the opening of Chuck's premiere of Sleep No More in order to make it look like Max has stood her up. Serena forgives Max for standing her up, and the two begin dating.

text: Charlie finds out the two are dating and convinces her to slow down the relationship. Serena's aunt Carol returns and Serena overhears an argument between the two about Carol forcing Charlie to live under the name 'Ivy Dickens'. Serena makes the connection between Max and Charlie when she remembers that Max's ex-girlfriend's name was Ivy. She demands the truth from Charlie and Max. Ivy as Charlie and Carol manage to convince Serena and the family that Max is lying and Serena tells Max to leave before she calls the police.

text: As Serena and Lily prepare Charlie for her debut into New York society, Dan tells Serena that he is going to tell Blair how he feels about her. In order to make Dan see that Blair's happy ending will be with Louis, she sends Louis to the Humphrey loft. When she finds Dan with Blair and Chuck later, she realizes that he gave up his desire for Blair for Blair's own happiness with Chuck and realizes that Blair is still in love with Chuck. Later that night, after Charlie's debutante party, Serena receives a call from Nate that Blair and Chuck have been in an accident. This causes Serena to declare war on Gossip Girl, using Nate's power at the Spectator, and Dan.

text: With Gossip Girl gone, Serena finds that Gossip Girl's tipsters have begun sending their blasts to her via her blog. Nate encourages her to use the blasts productively, but Serena is reluctant to become the next Gossip Girl. Meanwhile, Serena is concerned for Blair's well-being and confronts her at Nate's New Year's Eve party where Blair tells her that the accident was God's way of telling her that she and Chuck are not meant to be together and that she made a promise with God that if Chuck lived, she would marry Louis and that Dan has been going to church with her since. In order to cover Blair, Serena pretends that she has rekindled her romance with Dan. This "romance" becomes the focus of her soon-to-be-launched blog which causes problems for Dan, as while Dan thinks that their romance is fake, Serena is shown to have genuine feelings for Dan again.

text: Serena is humiliated at the press premiere of her new blog, being photographed holding a tablet that shows "Site not found." Upset, she is told the time wasn't right for her blog, but she ultimately discovers that Nate had it shut down as a favour to Gossip Girl. In return, Gossip Girl would help him find out the truth about Blair and Chuck's car accident. Serena doesn't agree with Nate's suspicions that Trippp was responsible, and confronts the latter over at the Waldorf residence. This is revealed to be a set-up brought about by Nate, Serena and Nate's grandfather as a way for Tripp to admit that he was behind the accident thinking that Nate was going to be in the car instead.

text: Following this, Serena finds out that Blair was arrested at her own bachelorette party, and rushes to her aide. Blair tells her that she's alright, and that since she's going to go through with her wedding, Serena doesn't have to pretend to be together with Dan anymore. Serena, however, decides to keep this truth from Dan a little while longer.

text: On Blair's wedding day, Serena tries to convince Blair not to marry Louis. Blair goes through with her wedding anyway, even after Gossip Girl launches a video of Blair professing her true feelings to Chuck. After the vows are said, Serena, Dan and Nate confront Georgina and she blames each of them in a vague manner before leaving. When Blair goes missing after her wedding, Serena and Chuck search for her, and find her in a motel in Queens with Dan, which upsets Serena as she still has feelings for him. When Georgina arrives, Serena is revealed to have Georgina's video camera that was used to record Blair's confession and she takes the fall for the video.

text: Following this, Blair and Serena are in yet another rut, but forgive each other and Serena is unknowingly set up on a blind date with Dan, after she told him her feelings and he rejected her. At a party later, she and Georgina find Dan and Blair kissing, which causes another rift between her and Blair. After her grandmother's death and shocking news of her will, Serena starts a vendetta against Ivy (who received the major part of CeCe's estate), trying to win back her family fortunes. In a surprising turn of events, she gets a package from former Gossip Girl, Georgina Sparks, containing a computer and the means necessary to become the next Gossip Girl. Serena accepts.

text: After losing the reins to Gossip Girl and her unintentional role in exposing Blair's diary to the Upper East side, Serena attempts to deceive Blair by having sex with Dan. The plan almost works only for Dan to realize what has happened. Serena once again tells Dan that she loves him but Dan tells her that he does not feel anything for her. A depressed Serena is last seen leaving the city with one of Damien Dalgaard's drug dealers, a flashback to her days before she returned to the Upper East Side in season one.

text: Season 6[edit]

text: In season 6, Serena is seen together with a new boyfriend, Steven Spence (who is significantly older than her). She is seen leading a happy, peaceful life away from the UES. Confronted by Blair, she simply says that she doesn't see how they could ever be friends again. Serena ultimately moves back to the UES with Steven, and his jealous daughter Sage. Sage uses every chance she gets to sabotage her father's relationship with Serena, and proves herself to be on par, scheming-wise, with Georgina and Blair. After some shocking revelations, including the fact that Steven has slept with Lily when her last name was Müller, they decide to end things.

text: Serena is re-united with Dan again in a last attempt to make things work. Dan, on his hand, has been writing a scathingly honest sequel to "Inside" with the help of Georgina. One of his last and most poignant chapters is The Serena Chapter, which is released during the Thanksgiving party. Serena is, in the chapter, described as a "Golden girl" who lives for attention and love, and dramatically ends things with Dan. She decides to move away from New York, but is intercepted by Dan, who tries to convince her that he has always loved her and always will. Hurt and upset, she doesn't believe him, and leaves. Before she leaves, Dan slides a file into her bag, which she opens on the plane before take-off. It is revealed that Dan wrote two chapters on Serena, and that the second one was the "Good Serena Chapter". She gets off the plane and goes to talk things through thoroughly with Dan.

text: In the finale, Dan reveals to her how they first met at a party at Blair's, and how he fell in love at first sight. He had then realised that he could never pull her out of her world and into his, so he found a way to enter her world by creating a UES blog. This blog, launching Serena's rise to legend, became known as Gossip Girl. Serena realises that Gossip Girl was only ever a manifestation of Dan's love for her, and that he practically wrote them all a seven-year-long love letter.

text: A scene set in the future shows everyone reunited at the Bass-Waldorf residence, witnessing the marriage of Dan and Serena.

text: Reception[edit]

text: Television[edit]

text: Serena's style has earned noteworthy praise from periodicals such as InStyle[29] and NYLON.[30] EW's Meeta Agrawal places Blake Lively's Serena van der Woodsen amongst the wearers of the 20 Knockout Dresses of the '00s. Her Tory Burch designed dress in the pilot earning the 2nd spot on the list.[31] People magazine references an issue of NYLON, reporting that even the actress herself admits to liking her character's style and wardrobe and InStyle's Joyann King praises "Serena’s vixen-like style and Lively’s smoldering off-screen choices".[29][32] In an interview for Vanity Fair, costume designers Eric Daman and Meredith Markworth-Pollack considered fashion model Kate Moss and New York socialites Tinsley Mortimer and Arden Wohl as a muse when dressing Lively and when asked if they were influenced by New York socialites, respectively.[33] TV Guide named her the fifth most fashionable TV character.[34] Glamour listed her as one of the 12 Most Stylish TV Characters.[35]

text: Blair and Serena's friendship was praised as "it offered a relationship whose depth and complexity approached Rory and Paris' [from Gilmore Girls]."[36] Vanity Fair considered Serena's murder storyline to be "unrealistic" and "an obvious ratings ploy," going on to compare it to a dramatic scene in The O.C., in which Marissa shot Ryan Atwood's brother, stating that the show may have possibly jumped the shark.[37]

text: For her portrayal of Serena van der Woodsen, Blake Lively won the 2008 Teen Choice Award for Choice TV Actress Drama and was nominated for the same award in 2009 and 2010, losing to her co-star, Leighton Meester, who portrays Blair Waldorf.[38] She, however, won the award again in 2011. Lively also earned a People's Choice Award nomination for Favorite TV Drama Actress in 2011 and 2012.


document_title: Pricing strategies

question_text: pricing tactics lower the price of a product below cost

root

text: Pricing strategies

text: Models of pricing[edit]

text: Absorption pricing[edit]

text: Method of pricing in which all costs are recovered. The price of the product includes the variable cost of each item plus a proportionate amount of the fixed costs.

tag: p

text: Contribution Margin-Based Pricing[edit]

text: Contribution margin-based pricing maximizes the profit derived from an individual product, based on the difference between the product's price and variable costs (the product's contribution margin per unit), and on one's assumptions regarding the relationship between the product's price and the number of units that can be sold at that price. The product's contribution to total firm profit (i.e. to operating income) is maximized when a price is chosen that maximizes the following: (contribution margin per unit) X (number of units sold).

text: In cost-plus pricing, a company first pricing determines its break-even price for the product. This is done by calculating all the costs involved in the production such as raw materials used in its transportation etc., marketing and distribution of the product. Then a markup is set for each unit, based on the profit the company needs to make, its sales objectives and the price it believes customers will pay. For example, if the company needs a 15 percent profit margin and the break-even price is $2.59, the price will be set at $3.05 ($2.59 / (1-15%)).[4]

text: Creaming or skimming[edit]

text: In most skimming, goods are higher priced so that fewer sales are needed to break even. Selling a product at a high price, sacrificing high sales to gain a high profit is therefore "skimming" the market. Skimming is usually employed to reimburse the cost of investment of the original research into the product: commonly used in electronic markets when a new range, such as DVD players, are firstly dismarket at a high price. This strategy is often used to target "early adopters" of a product or service. Early adopters generally have a relatively lower price-sensitivity—this can be attributed to: their need for the product outweighing their need to economise; a greater understanding of the product's value; or simply having a higher disposable income.

text: This strategy is employed only for a limited duration to recover most of the investment made to build the product. To gain further market share, a seller must use other pricing tactics such as economy or penetration. This method can have some setbacks as it could leave the product at a high price against the competition.[5]

text: Decoy pricing[edit]

text: Method of pricing where the seller offers at least three products, and where two of them have a similar or equal price. The two products with the similar prices should be the most expensive ones, and one of the two should be less attractive than the other. This strategy will make people compare the options with similar prices, and as a result sales of the more attractive high-priced item will increase.

text: Freemium[edit]

text: Freemium is a revenue model that works by offering a product or service free of charge (typically digital offerings such as software, content, games, web services or other) while charging a premium for advanced features, functionality, or related products and services. The word "freemium" is a portmanteau combining the two aspects of the business model: "free" and "premium". It has become a highly popular model, with notable success.

text: High-low pricing[edit]

text: Methods of services offered by the organization are regularly priced higher than competitors, but through promotions, advertisements, and or coupons, lower prices are offered on key items. The lower promotional prices designed to bring customers to the organization where the customer is offered the promotional product as well as the regular higher priced products.[6]

text: Keystone pricing[edit]

text: A retail pricing strategy where retail price is set at double the wholesale price. For example, if a cost of a product for a retailer is £100, then the sale price would be £200. In a competitive industry, it is often not recommended to use Keystone Pricing as a pricing strategy due to its relatively high profit margin and the fact that other variables need to be taken into account.[7]

text: Limit pricing[edit]

text: A limit price is the price set by a monopolist to discourage economic entry into a market, and is illegal in many countries. The limit price is the price that the entrant would face upon entering as long as the incumbent firm did not decrease output. The limit price is often lower than the average cost of production or just low enough to make entering not profitable. The quantity produced by the incumbent firm to act as a deterrent to entry is usually larger than would be optimal for a monopolist, but might still produce higher economic profits than would be earned under perfect competition.

text: The problem with limit pricing as a strategy is that once the entrant has entered the market, the quantity used as a threat to deter entry is no longer the incumbent firm's best response. This means that for limit pricing to be an effective deterrent to entry, the threat must in some way be made credible. A way to achieve this is for the incumbent firm to constrain itself to produce a certain quantity whether entry occurs or not. An example of this would be if the firm signed a union contract to employ a certain (high) level of labor for a long period of time. In this strategy price of the product becomes the limit according to budget.

text: Loss leader[edit]

text: A loss leader or leader is a product sold at a low price (i.e. at cost or below cost) to stimulate other profitable sales. This would help the companies to expand its market share as a whole. Loss leader strategy is commonly used by retailers in order to lead the customers into buying products with higher marked-up prices to produce an increase in profits rather than purchasing the leader product which is sold at a lower cost. When a "featured brand" is priced to be sold at a lower cost, retailers tend not to sell large quantities of the loss leader products and also they tend to purchase less quantities from the supplier as well to prevent loss for the firm.[8] Supermarkets and restaurants are an excellent example of retail firms that apply the strategy of loss leader.[9]

text: Marginal-cost pricing[edit]

text: In business, the practice of setting the price of a product to equal the extra cost of producing an extra unit of output. By this policy, a producer charges, for each product unit sold, only the addition to total cost resulting from materials and direct labor. Businesses often set prices close to marginal cost during periods of poor sales. If, for example, an item has a marginal cost of $1.00 and a normal selling price is $2.00, the firm selling the item might wish to lower the price to $1.10 if demand has waned. The business would choose this approach because the incremental profit of 10 cents from the transaction is better than no sale at all.

text: Cost plus pricing[edit]

text: Cost plus pricing is a cost-based method for setting the prices of goods and services. Under this approach, the direct material cost, direct labor cost, and overhead costs for a product are added up and added to a markup percentage (to create a profit margin) in order to derive the price of the product.

text: Odd pricing[edit]

text: In this type of pricing, the seller tends to fix a price whose last digits are just below a round number (also called just-below pricing). This is done so as to give the buyers/consumers no gap for bargaining as the prices seem to be less and yet in an actual sense are too high, and takes advantage of human psychology. A good example of this can be noticed in most supermarkets where instead of pricing at £10, it would be written as £9.99.

text: Pay what you want[edit]

text: Pay what you want is a pricing system where buyers pay any desired amount for a given commodity, sometimes including zero. In some cases, a minimum (floor) price may be set, and/or a suggested price may be indicated as guidance for the buyer. The buyer can also select an amount higher than the standard price for the commodity.

text: Giving buyers the freedom to pay what they want may seem to not make much sense for a seller, but in some situations it can be very successful. While most uses of pay what you want have been at the margins of the economy, or for special promotions, there are emerging efforts to expand its utility to broader and more regular use.

text: Penetration pricing[edit]

text: Penetration pricing includes setting the price low with the goals of attracting customers and gaining market share. The price will be raised later once this market share is gained.[10]

text: A firm that uses a penetration pricing strategy prices a product or a service at a smaller amount than its usual, long range market price in order to increase more rapid market recognition or to increase their existing market share. This strategy can sometimes discourage new competitors from entering a market position if they incorrectly observe the penetration price as a long range price.[11]

text: Companies do their pricing in diverse ways. In small companies, prices are often set by the boss. In large companies, pricing is handled by division and the product line managers. In industries where pricing is a key influence, pricing departments are set to support others in determining suitable prices.

text: Penetration pricing strategy is usually used by firms or businesses who are just entering the market. In marketing it is a theoretical method that is used to lower the prices of the goods and services causing high demand for them in the future. This strategy of penetration pricing is vital and highly recommended to be applied over multiple situations that the firm may face. Such as, when the production rate of the firm is lower when compared to other firms in the market and also sometimes when firms face hardship into releasing their product in the market due to extremely large rate of competition. In these situations it is appropriate for a firm to use the penetration strategy to gain consumer attention.[12]

text: Predatory pricing[edit]

text: Predatory pricing, also known as aggressive pricing (also known as "undercutting"), intended to drive out competitors from a market. It is illegal in some countries.

text: Companies or firms that tend to get involved with the strategy of predatory pricing often have the goal to place restrictions or a barrier for other new businesses from entering the applicable market. It is an unethical act which contradicts anti–trust law, attempting to establish within the market a monopoly by the imposing Company.[13] Predatory pricing mainly occurs during price competitions in the market as it is an easy way to obfuscate the unethical and illegal act. Using this strategy, in the short term consumers will benefit and be satisfied with lower cost products. In the long run, firms often will not benefit as this strategy will continue to be used by other businesses to undercut competitors margins, causing an increase in competition within the field and facilitating major losses.[14] This strategy is dangerous as it could be destructive to a firm in terms of losses and even lead to complete business failure.

text: Premium decoy pricing[edit]

text: Method of pricing where an organization artificially sets one product price high, in order to boost sales of a lower priced product.

text: Premium pricing[edit]

text: Premium pricing is the practice of keeping the price of a product or service artificially high in order to encourage favorable perceptions among buyers, based solely on the price. The practice is intended to exploit the (not necessarily justifiable) tendency for buyers to assume that expensive items enjoy an exceptional reputation, are more reliable or desirable, or represent exceptional quality and distinction. Moreover, a premium price may portray the meaning of better quality in the eyes of the consumer.

text: Consumers are willing to pay more for trends, which is a key motive for premium pricing, and are not afraid on how much a product or service costs. The novelty of consumers wanting to have the latest trends is a challenge for marketers as they are having to entertain their consumers.[15]

text: The aspiration of consumers and the feeling of treating themselves is the key factor of purchasing a good or service. Consumers are looking for constant change as they are constantly evolving and moving.

text: Examples of premium pricing:

text:
Ethical consumption
Fair traders
Voluntarism

tag: ul

text: These are important drivers and examples of premium pricing, which help guide and distinguish of how a product or service is marketed and priced within today's market.[15]

text: Price discrimination[edit]

text: Price discrimination is the practice of setting a different price for the same product in different segments to the market. For example, this can be for different classes, such as ages, or for different opening times.

text: Price discrimination may improve consumer surplus. When a firm price discriminates, it will sell up to the point where marginal cost meets the demand curve. There are 3 conditions needed for a business to undertake price discrimination, these include:

text:
Accurately segment the market
Prevent resale
Have market power

tag: ol

text: There are three different types of price discrimination which revolve around the same strategy and same goal – maximize profit by segmenting the market, and extracting additional consumer surplus.[16]

text:
First-degree price discrimination

The business charges every consumer exactly how much they are willing to pay for the product.

Second-degree price discrimination

The business uses volume discounts which allows buyers to purchase a higher inventory at a reduced price. While this benefits the high-inventory buyer, it obviously hurts the low-inventory buyer who is forced to pay a higher price. This buyer may then be less competitive in the downstream market.

Third-degree price discrimination

This occurs when firms segment the market into high demand and low demand groups.[16]

text: Firm need to ensure they are aware of several factors of their business before proceeding with the strategy of price discrimination. Firms must have control over the changes they make regarding the price of their product by which they can gain profitability depending on the amount of sales made. The price can be increased or decreased at any point depending on the fluctuation of the rate of buyers and consumers. Price discrimination strategy is not feasible for all firms as there are many consequences that the firms may face due to the action. For example: if a firm sells a product to their customer for a cheaper price and that customer resells the product demanding a higher price from another buyer then the chances of the firm failing to make a higher profit is predicted because they could have sold their product at a higher rate than the re-seller and made further profit.[17]

text: Price leadership[edit]

text: An observation made of oligopolistic business behavior in which one company, usually the dominant competitor among several, leads the way in determining prices, the others soon following. The context is a state of limited competition, in which a market is shared by a small number of producers or sellers.

text: Psychological pricing[edit]

text: Pricing designed to have a positive psychological impact. For example, selling a product at $3.95 or $3.99, rather than $4.00. There are certain price points where people are willing to buy a product. If the price of a product is $100 and the company prices it at $99, then it is called psychological pricing. In most consumer's minds, $99 is psychologically 'less' than $100. A minor distinction in pricing can make a big difference in sales. The company that succeeds in finding psychological price points can improve sales and maximize revenue.

text: Target pricing business[edit]

text: Pricing method whereby the selling price of a product is calculated to produce a particular rate of return on investment for a specific volume of production. The target pricing method is used most often by public utilities, like electric and gas companies, and companies whose capital investment is high, like automobile manufacturers.

text: Target pricing is not useful for companies whose capital investment is low because, according to this formula, the selling price will be understated. Also the target pricing method is not keyed to the demand for the product, and if the entire volume is not sold, a company might sustain an overall budgetary loss on the product.

text: Time-based pricing[edit]

text: A flexible pricing mechanism made possible by advances in information technology, and employed mostly by Internet-based companies. By responding to market fluctuations or large amounts of data gathered from customers – ranging from where they live to what they buy to how much they have spent on past purchases – dynamic pricing allows online companies to adjust the prices of identical goods to correspond to a customer's willingness to pay. The airline industry is often cited as a dynamic pricing success story. In fact, it employs the technique so artfully that most of the passengers on any given airplane have paid different ticket prices for the same flight.[18]

text: Time sensitive pricing[edit]

text: Time sensitive pricing is a cost-based method for setting prices for goods that have a short shelf life. Careful consideration has to be taken to the "Use By" and "Best Before" dates of the products, in relation to the "Mark Up" or "Return" of the products. That is to say the shorter period of time should have a lower Mark-up/Return margin, thus increasing the Turnover/sales of the product, and decreasing the Wastage/loss of products.

text: Value-based pricing[edit]

text: Pricing a product based on the value the product has for the customer and not on its costs of production or any other factor. This pricing strategy is frequently used where the value to the customer is many times the cost of producing the item or service. For instance, the cost of producing a software CD is about the same independent of the software on it, but the prices vary with the perceived value the customers are expected to have. The perceived value will depend on the alternatives open to the customer. In business these alternatives are using competitors software, using a manual work around, or not doing an activity. In order to employ value-based pricing, a one must know its customers' business, one's business costs, and one's perceived alternatives. It is also known as perceived-value pricing.

text: Value-based pricing have many effects on the business and consumer of the product. Value-based pricing is a fundamental business activity and is the process of developing product strategies and pricing them properly to establish the product within the market. This is a key concept for a relatively new product within the market, because without the correct price, there would be no sale. Having an overly high price for an average product would have negative effects on the business as the consumer would not buy the product. Having a low price on a luxury product would also have a negative impact on the business as in the long run the business would not be profitable. This can be seen as a positive for the consumer as they are not needing to pay extreme prices for the luxury product.[19]

text: There has been an evident change in the marketing area within a business from cost plus pricing to the value.

text: Variable pricing strategies[edit]

text: Variable pricing strategy sums up the total cost of the variable characteristics associated in the production of the product. Examples of variable characteristics are: interest rates, location, date, and region of production. The sum total of the following characteristics is then included within the original price of the product during marketing. Variable pricing enables product prices to have a balance "between sales volume and income per unit sold".[20] Variable pricing strategy has the advantage of ensuring the sum total of the cost businesses would face in order to develop a new product. However, variable pricing strategy excludes the cost of fixed pricing. Fixed pricing includes the price of dedication received from manufactures in the production of developing the product and other involvement of factors.[21]

text: Yield management strategies[edit]

text: Yield management is a strategy which aims to monitor consumer behaviour to gain and achieve maximum profit through selling goods and services that are perishable. The theory behind this strategy is to focus on the following aspects: buying behaviour patterns of consumers, external environmental factors and market price to successfully gain the most profit.[22] This strategy of yield management is commonly used by the firms associated within the airlines industry. For example: A customer may purchase an airline ticket in the day time for $600 and another customer may purchase the same airline ticket on the same day in the evening for $800. Reason being that during the day time the airline contained many seats that were spare which needed to be occupied and sold. Thus, prices were decreased in order to attract and manipulate the customers into buying an airline ticket with great deals or offers. However, during the evening time most seats were filled and the firm decided to increase the price of the airline ticket for the desperate customers who needed to purchase the spare seats that were available.[23] This type of strategy is a vigilant way of connecting with the target consumers as well as flourishing the business.

text: Other pricing approaches[edit]

text: Other pricing strategies include congestion pricing.

text: Nine laws of price sensitivity and consumer psychology[edit]

text: In their book, The Strategy and Tactics of Pricing, Thomas Nagle and Reed Holden outline nine "laws" or factors that influence how a consumer perceives a given price and how price-sensitive they are likely to be with respect to different purchase decisions.[24][25]

text: They are:

text:
Reference Price Effect – buyer's price sensitivity for a given product increases the higher the product's price relative to perceived alternatives. Perceived alternatives can vary by buyer segment, by occasion, and other factors.
Difficult Comparison Effect – buyers are less sensitive to the price of a known or more reputable product when they have difficulty comparing it to potential alternatives.
Switching Costs Effect – the higher the product-specific investment a buyer must make to switch suppliers, the less price sensitive that buyer is when choosing between alternatives.
Price-Quality Effect – buyers are less sensitive to price the more that higher prices signal higher quality. Products for which this effect is particularly relevant include: image products, exclusive products, and products with minimal cues for quality.
Expenditure Effect – buyers are more price-sensitive when the expense accounts for a large percentage of buyers' available income or budget.
End-Benefit Effect – the effect refers to the relationship a given purchase has to a larger overall benefit, and is divided into two parts: Derived demand: The more sensitive buyers are to the price of the end benefit, the more sensitive they will be to the prices of those products that contribute to that benefit. Price proportion cost: The price proportion cost refers to the percent of the total cost of the end benefit accounted for by a given component that helps to produce the end benefit (e.g., think CPU and PCs). The smaller the given components share of the total cost of the end benefit, the less sensitive buyers will be to the components' price.
Shared-cost Effect – the smaller the portion of the purchase price buyers must pay for themselves, the less price sensitive they will be.
Fairness Effect – buyers are more sensitive to the price of a product when the price is outside the range they perceive as "fair" or "reasonable" given the purchase context.
The Framing Effect – buyers are more price sensitive when they perceive the price as a loss rather than a forgone gain, and they have greater price sensitivity when the price is paid separately rather than as part of a bundle.


document_title: Fibber McGee and Molly

question_text: who played the little girl on fibber mcgee and molly

text: Fibber McGee and Molly

text: Husband and wife in real life[edit]

text: The stars of the program were real-life husband and wife team James "Jim" Jordan (16 November 1896 – 1 April 1988)[1][2] and Marian Driscoll (15 April 1898 – 7 April 1961),[1][3] who were natives of Peoria, Illinois.

text: Jordan was the seventh of eight children born to James Edward Jordan and Mary (née Tighe) Jordan, while Driscoll was the twelfth out of thirteen children born to Daniel P. and Anna (née Carroll) Driscoll. The son of a farmer, Jim wanted to be a singer; Marian, the daughter of a coal miner, wanted to be a music teacher. Both attended the same Catholic church, where they met at choir practice. Marian's parents had attempted to discourage her professional singing and acting aspirations. When she started seeing young Jim Jordan, the Driscolls were far from approving of Jim and his ideas. Jim's voice teacher gave him a recommendation for work as a professional in Chicago, and he followed it. He was able to have steady work but soon tired of the life on the road. In less than a year, Jim came back to Peoria and went to work for the Post Office. His occupation was now acceptable to Marian's parents, and they stopped objecting to the couple's marriage plans. The pair were married in Peoria on August 31, 1918.[4]

text: Five days after the wedding, Jim received his draft notice. He was sent to France and became part of a military touring group that entertained the armed forces after World War I.[4] When Jim came home from France, he and Marian decided to try their luck with a vaudeville act.[5][6] They had two children, Kathryn Therese Jordan (1920–2007) and James Carroll Jordan (1923–1998), both born in Peoria. Marian returned home for the birth of Kathryn but went back to performing with Jim, leaving her daughter with Jim's parents. After Jim Jr. was born in 1923, Marian stayed with the children for a time, while Jim performed as a solo act. Marian and the children joined him on the road for a short time, but the couple had to admit defeat when they found themselves in Lincoln, Illinois in 1923 with two small children and no funds. The couple's parents had to wire them money for their return to Peoria. Jim went to work at a local department store but still felt the attraction of being in show business. He and Marian went back into vaudeville.[4]

text: While staying with Jim's brother in Chicago in 1924, the family was listening to the radio; Jim said that he and Marian could do better than the musical act currently on the air. Jim's brother bet him $10 that they could not. To win the bet, Jim and Marian went to WIBO,[7] where they were immediately put on the air. At the end of the performance, the station offered the couple a contract for a weekly show, which paid $10 per week. The sponsor of the show was Oh Henry! candy, and they appeared for six months on The Oh Henry! Twins program, switching to radio station WENR by 1927.[4][6][8]

text: When it appeared to the couple that they were financially successful, they built a home in Chicago, which was a replica of their rented home, complete to building it on the lot next door. For their 1939 move to the West Coast, the Jordans selected an inconspicuous home in Encino. Some of Jim Jordan's investments included the bottling company for Hires Root Beer in Kansas City.[9]

text: From vaudeville to Smackout[edit]

text: Fibber McGee and Molly originated when the small-time husband-and-wife vaudevillians began their third year as Chicago-area radio performers. Two of the shows they did for station WENR beginning in 1927, both written by Harry Lawrence, bore traces of what was to come and rank as one of the earliest forms of situation comedy. In their Luke and Mirandy farm-report program, Jim played a farmer who was given to tall tales and face-saving lies for comic effect.[4] In a weekly comedy, The Smith Family, Marian's character was an Irish wife of an American police officer. These characterizations, plus the Jordans' change from being singers/musicians to comic actors, pointed toward their future; it was at this time when Marian developed and perfected the radio character "Teeny".[6][10] It was also at WENR where the Jordans met Donald Quinn, a cartoonist who was then working in radio, and the couple hired him as their writer in 1931. They regarded Quinn's contribution as important and included him as a full partner; the salary for Smackout and Fibber McGee and Molly was split between the Jordans and Quinn.[4][9]

text: While working on the WENR farm report, Jim Jordan heard a true story about a shopkeeper from Missouri whose store was brimming with stock, yet he claimed to be "smack out" of whatever a customer would ask him for. The story reached the halls of nearby Columbia College, and the students began visiting the store, which they called "Smackout", to hear the owner's incredible stories.[4]

text: For station WMAQ in Chicago, beginning in April 1931, the trio created Smackout, a 15-minute daily program that centered on a general store and its proprietor, Luke Grey (Jim Jordan), a storekeeper with a penchant for tall tales and a perpetual dearth of whatever his customers wanted: He always seemed "smack out of it".[9] Marian Jordan portrayed both a lady named Marian and a little girl named Teeny, as well as accompanying the program on piano. During the show's run, Marian Jordan voiced a total of 69 different characters.[4] Smackout was picked up by NBC in April 1933 and broadcast nationally until August 1935.[11]

text: One of the S. C. Johnson company's owners, Henrietta Johnson Lewis, recommended that her husband, John, Johnson Wax's advertising manager, try the show out on a national network. The terms of the agreement between S. C. Johnson and the Jordans awarded the company ownership of the names "Fibber McGee" and "Molly".[9]

text: From Smackout to Wistful Vista[edit]

text: If Smackout proved the Jordan-Quinn union's viability, their next creation proved their most enduring. Amplifying Luke Grey's tall talesmanship to Midwestern braggadocio, Quinn developed Fibber McGee and Molly with Jim as the foible-prone Fibber and Marian playing his patient, common sense, honey-natured wife. The show premiered on NBC April 16, 1935, and though it took three seasons to become an irrevocable hit, it became the country's top-rated radio series.[6] In 1935, Jim Jordan won the Burlington Liars' Club championship with a story about catching an elusive rat.[12]

text: Existing in a kind of Neverland where money never came in, schemes never stayed out for very long, yet no one living or visiting went wanting, 79 Wistful Vista (the McGees' address from show #20, August 1935 onward) became the home Depression-exhausted Americans visited to remind themselves that they were not the only ones finding cheer in the middle of struggle and doing their best not to make it overt. The McGees won their house in a raffle from Mr. Hagglemeyer's Wistful Vista Development Company, with lottery ticket #131,313, happened upon by chance while on a pleasure drive in their car. With blowhard McGee wavering between mundane tasks and hare-brained schemes (like digging an oil well in the back yard), antagonizing as many people as possible, and patient Molly indulging his foibles and providing loving support, not to mention a tireless parade of neighbors and friends in and out of the quiet home, Fibber McGee and Molly built its audience steadily, but once it found the full volume of that audience in 1940, they rarely let go of it.[4]

text: Marian Jordan took a protracted absence from the show from November 1937 to April 1939 to deal with a lifelong battle with alcoholism, although this was attributed to "fatigue" in public statements at the time.[9] The show was retitled Fibber McGee and Company during this interregnum, with scripts cleverly working around Molly's absence (Fibber making a speech at a convention, etc.). Comedian ZaSu Pitts appeared on the Fibber McGee and Company show, as did singer Donald Novis.

text: While his wife was ill, Jim Jordan had been closing his radio shows by saying "Goodnight, Molly." In early 1938, the Federal Communications Commission ordered him to stop, claiming it violated a rule about using public airwaves for personal communications. After a few weeks' deliberation, the Commission found that no regulations had been broken, because Molly was the name of Marian Jordan's radio character. Jordan was then able to resume his "Goodnight, Molly" signoff.[13] In January 1939, the show moved from NBC Chicago to the new NBC West Coast Radio City in Hollywood.[14]

text: Recurring characters[edit]

text: Fibber McGee and Molly was one of the earliest radio comedies to use regular characters, nearly all of whom had recurring phrases and running gags. These included:

text:
Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve (Harold Peary) – the pompous next-door neighbor with whom Fibber enjoyed twitting and arguing. Introduced in 1939. Harold Peary actually portrayed several Gildersleeve characters before the appearance of Throckmorton. On Feb 21(Ep.193), Homer Gildersleeve appears with his wife! On March 21, 1939 (episode #197), he portrayed Frank, the barber. In the 25 April 1939 episode (#202), Fibber visits an optometrist ("oculist") named Dr. Donald Gildersleeve. In the 20 June 1939 episode, Fibber Has a Toothache, their dentist is Dr. Gildersleeve; although Molly calls him Wilbur, McGee calls him "Wilberforce", and he once had a "thing" for Molly, so it might be a relative to Throckmorton? In the episode "Gildersleeve's Diary" (10/22/40), it is revealed that his middle name is Philharmonic. Many of his interactions with Fibber include the catchphrase "You're a hard man, McGee", in response to a harsh or critical statement from Fibber. Throckmortons's wife is frequently mentioned, never heard, and dropped when Peary moved on to his own show. However, the wife of Homer Gildersleeve (again played by Peary) was briefly heard from in one episode.
The Old-Timer (Bill Thompson) – a hard-of-hearing senior citizen with a penchant for distorting jokes, prefacing each one by saying, "That ain't the way I heer'd it!" For no apparent reason, he refers to Fibber as "Johnny" and Molly as "Daughter". A recurring joke is that he refuses to tell his real name. In the 1940 episode "Mailing Christmas Packages", he is referred to by another character as "Roy", while in one episode (01/29/1946 and reiterated in the episode a week later) he claims his name is "Rupert Blasingame". In the 3/25/41 episode, "Fibber Changes His Name", he appears as Mr. Fumble, a lawyer. Also, in the 3/14/39 episode, Fibber calls him Mr. Sims, but he's having trouble with his memory in this episode, so this may be just an error in remembering, as he also calls Mr. Wilcox "Harpo" for perhaps the first time instead of Harlow, due to poor memory tricks. The Old-Timer's girlfriend is named Bessie, and she usually refers to him as "O.T." In a 15-minute episode near the end of the series, Mcgee and Molly spend the day trying to find one mysterious "Adleton P. Bagshaw," only to discover him to be the Old-Timer. At the Mcgees' surprise the Old-Timer says, "You mean to stand there with your bare face hanging out in the wind and tell me you don't know my name. . . pretty discouragin' when folks you consider your friends for nigh on twenty years don't even know."
Tini, also known as "Little Girl" and "Sis" (Marian Jordan) – a precocious youngster who frequently tried to cadge loose change from Fibber (often in cahoots with her rarely heard best friend Willie Toops). She often ended her sentences with "I betcha!", and when someone mentioned food, or a word that sounded like a food, she usually responded "I'm hungry." Tini was also known to lose track of her own conversations. When Fibber showed interest in what she was saying, she would forget all about it, and her conversation would switch from telling to asking. After Fibber repeated everything she had been telling him, Tini would reply "I know!" or "I know it!" in a condescending way. Her appearances were sometimes foreshadowed by Molly excusing herself to the kitchen or to have a nap. Fibber would wistfully deliver a compliment to her, saying, "Ah, there goes a good kid," upon which the doorbell would ring and Tini would appear, usually greeting Fibber with "Hi, mister!" On rare occasions Molly and Tini would interact.[9] In the December 21, 1948 broadcast Fibber learned that her real name was "Elizabeth" from a Christmas card she had sent him. She was perpetually a child, and her permanent youth was only mentioned once; Fibber asked her how old she was, to which she responded, "Five". Then he asked how long she'd been coming over to visit him and Molly. "Nine years," she answered. Then, after a pause, she asked, "Ain't it a wonderful world, mister?"
Mayor La Trivia (Gale Gordon) – the mayor of Wistful Vista, whose name was inspired by New York City's famous mayor Fiorello La Guardia. In later episodes, Fibber occasionally addresses the mayor as "Homer", although it is unclear whether this is his actual first name, or just another of the show's random unexplained naming gags, as The Old Timer's calling Fibber "Johnny". In one episode, we learn that Fifi Tremaine's pet name for the mayor is "Chuckie". The McGees' regular routine with La Trivia entailed Fibber and Molly misunderstanding a figure of speech, in much the same vein as Abbott & Costello's Who's On First? routine. La Trivia would slowly progress from attempting patient explanation to tongue-tied rage, in Gale Gordon's classic slow-burn. Occasionally, after La Trivia exited a scene, Fibber and Molly's dialogue makes it clear that they were deliberately winding him up.
Foggy Williams (Gordon) – local weatherman and next-door neighbor who tells fanciful stories, lets Fibber borrow his tools, and takes credit or blame for the present weather conditions. He is known for his extensive use of tentative language and usually exits with the line "Good day... probably."
Billy Mills – wisecracking leader of Billy Mills and the Orchestra, who led the show's ensemble through musical numbers in each episode. In addition to standards and popular tunes, Mills occasionally showcased his own original compositions, including "I'm In Love With The Sound Effects Man" (in the episode "Amusement Park" (06/17/41) and later covered by Spike Jones), and "The Cocky Cuckoo" (in the episode "Businessmen's Symphony", (06/12/51)). Mills also was the composer of the longest-running theme song on radio beginning around 1940, also used for the later TV series – he named his composition "Wing To Wing".
Dr. George Gamble (Arthur Q. Bryan) – a local physician and surgeon with whom Fibber had a long-standing rivalry and friendship. The two often come up with creative insults for each other's excessive weight. Before Bryan joined the cast, Gale Gordon played the part of the town doctor in several episodes.
Ole Swenson (Richard LeGrand, who also played Mr. Peavey on The Great Gildersleeve) – a Swedish-born janitor at the Elks Club, often complaining that he was "joost donatin' my time!" His wife's name is Helga, and their children include Kristina, Sven, Lars, and Ole.
Mrs. Abigail Uppington (Isabel Randolph) – a snooty society matron whose pretensions Fibber delighted in deflating. Fibber often addressed her as "Uppy". In the episode "Fibber Hires A Surveyor" (3/26/40) it is revealed that she is having a romantic relationship with orchestra leader Billy Mills, and in the episode "Gildersleeve's Diary" (10/22/40), we learn that she also has a romantic past with Gildersleeve. She also has a relationship with Horation K. Boomer in a few episodes, and the McGees assume he is using her for her money. In several episodes, there are references to the fact that Mrs. Uppington wasn't always rich. In the episode "The Circus Comes to Town" (5/28/40), it is revealed that she met the wealthy Mr. Uppington when she was a circus bareback rider known as Mademoiselle Tootsie Latour. Her horse got scared during a trick, and she accidentally did a double back flip into Mr. Uppington's lap, and he proposed on the spot.
Mrs. Millicent Carstairs (Bea Benaderet) – another of Wistful Vista's high society matrons, known to Fibber as "Carsty". Like Mrs. Uppington, Mrs. Carstairs doesn't come from a wealthy lineage. In "Fibber Thinks He's the Governor's Pal" (12/11/45), she lets slip that before she met Mr. Carstairs she was a blackjack dealer in a gambling joint.
Wallace Wimple (Thompson, using a voice he later employed for the MGM-animated Droopy) – Wimple was a soft-spoken man in the Caspar Milquetoast vein. He would enter the episode uttering his mush-mouth catchphrase, "Hello, folks!" Wimple might recite a verse he'd written but more often would recount the latest incident in his ongoing battle with Sweetie-Face, his "big old wife” who had the physique and demeanor of a drill sergeant on a bad day. Sweetie-Face was a regular unseen character (actually of course, this being radio, unheard character),[15] appearing in the show only from Wallace's perspective. “Wimp,” as Fibber called him, often reported provoking an overreaction from Sweetie-Face, followed by his attempt at revenge in a way that could be prankish, painful, or in some stories potentially fatal. One day (03/09/48) when he asked Sweetie-Face what she was doing, Wallace said she told him she was "practicing her weight-lifting." Wallace said he told Sweetie-Face, "My goodness, you do that every time you get up out of a chair.” “Uh oh,” fretted Molly. “And then when I regained consciousness,” continued Wimple, “she'd left the room.” With a typically evil chuckle, Wallace said that he got even by bolting her 200-pound barbell to the floor, causing her to strain so hard the next time she lifted weights that she popped her girdle. Passive-aggressive behavior edging well over the line into domestic violence characterized Wimple's stories. Radio network censors in the 1940s blocked any reference to certain subjects including sex,[16] but the dark humor about domestic violence that was allowed here and in The Honeymooners would likely not be written into a network-TV sitcom today.[17] Though the term “wimp” as used to describe a weak-willed person predated[18] Fibber McGee and Molly, the Wimple character and Fibber's nickname for him may have contributed to a surge in popular use.[19]
Alice Darling (Shirley Mitchell) – a ditzy and boy-crazy young aircraft-plant worker who boarded with the McGees during the war.
Horatio K. Boomer (Thompson) – a con artist with a W. C. Fields-like voice and delivery.[9] His appearances typically included him rummaging through a pocket or bag or other container and listing the things inside, usually ending with "a check for a short beer".
Nick Depopulis (Thompson) – a Greek-born restaurateur with a tendency toward verbal malapropisms.[9] He normally refers to Fibber and Molly as "Fizzer and Kewpie".
Milt Spilkt – the nephew of Kramer from Kramer's Drugstore.
The Toops Family – Mort and Mabel Toops, and their son Willie, live in the McGees' neighborhood next door to Dr. Gamble. They are rarely heard on the show, but have occasional lines (for example, Mabel has several lines during "Fibber Cooks Dinner for Molly's Birthday" (10/23/51), Mort has some lines in "Halloween Party" (10/28/35), and Willie is heard in "Soapbox Derby Racer for Teeny" (4/24/51)). Willie Toops is most often mentioned in conjunction with Teeny, who sometimes refers to him as her boyfriend or future husband. The character of Beulah first appeared when she stopped at the McGees' on her way to her first day of work at the Toops' house.
Myrtle, also known as "Myrt" – an almost-never-heard-from telephone operator (she makes a brief appearance in the June 22, 1943 episode) that Fibber is friends with. A typical Myrt sketch started with Fibber picking up the phone and demanding, "Operator, give me number 32Oooh, is that you, Myrt? How's every little thing, Myrt? What say, Myrt?" Commonly, this was followed with Fibber relaying what Myrt was telling him to Molly, usually news about Myrt's family, and always ending with a bad pun. Myrtle made one brief on-air appearance on June 22, 1943, when she visited the McGees to wish them a good summer—the McGees did not recognize her in person.
Fred Nitney – another never-heard character, until episode 715, which aired Jan 6, 1953. They meet and chat briefly at the train station. Fibber's old vaudeville partner from Starved Rock, Illinois.
Aunt Sarah – Molly's rich aunt who always sends useless gifts for Christmas, a silent character.
Fifi Tremaine – another never-heard-from character, Fifi was an actress and was courted by both Doc Gamble and Mayor La Trivia, and Fibber enjoyed pitting the two against each other in their competition for Fifi's affections.
Herbert Appel – a stock boy at the hardware store, his character is distinguished by his odd speech patterns. By putting non-standard emphasis on syllables and sounds, his sentences can be confusing and/or humorous (what would now be considered mondegreen). For example, "I had to get up at eight o'clock" is heard by Fibber and Molly as "I had to get a potato clock", "I got up too early" comes out as "I got up twirly", and his own name sounds like "Herber Tapple" (in "Fibber Puts Up Christmas Lights", 12/20/49).
Beulah – the McGees' black maid and possibly the series' most unusual character. Unlike the situation on The Jack Benny Program, where black actor Eddie Anderson played "Rochester", Beulah was voiced by a Caucasian male, Marlin Hurt. The character's usual opening line, "Somebody bawl fo' Beulah??", often provoked a stunned, screeching sort of laughter among the live studio audience; many of them, seeing the show performed for the first time in person, did not know that the actor voicing Beulah was neither black nor female, and expressed their surprise when Hurt delivered his line. Her other catchphrase, typically delivered after a fit of laughter over a Fibber gag, was, "Love that man!" Hurt had created the Beulah character independently and had portrayed her occasionally on other shows prior to his joining the Fibber McGee and Molly cast.[6]
Lena – the McGees' second maid during the series, she replaced Beulah after the character was spun off into her own show. Like Beulah, Lena was played by male actor Gene Carroll.
Uncle Dennis (Ransom Sherman) – Molly's hard-drinking uncle, Dennis Driscoll, who was the subject of a running gag (see below) and was generally never heard. He did appear in a few episodes in 1943–44, including "Renting Spare Room" (October 5, 1943), "Fibber Makes His Own Chili Sauce" (November 9, 1943), and "Dinner Out to Celebrate" (January 25, 1944).
Sigmund "Sig" Wellington (Sherman) – the manager of the Bijou Theater

text: After the program aired and rehearsal[edit]

text: The radio show was run on a tight schedule. It was considered to be one of the best organized broadcasts on the networks. Jim Jordan insisted that after the Tuesday broadcast everyone affiliated with the program must take a two-day rest. Nothing is done about the following Tuesday's show until Friday morning. Then Jim and Marian Jordan get together with writer Don Quinn and agency producer Cecil Underwood to talk the next script into shape. They work in a business office because they're convinced that the businesslike and efficient atmosphere helps them to get the work done in two hours. By Saturday morning, Quinn had the first draft of the script ready, and "Fibber" reads it, after which Quinn goes ahead to write the final, working script. He does this Sunday night, working all night and finishing Monday morning. Monday morning the cast—except the musical portion of it—gathers at the NBC Hollywood studios and rehearses for two hours, after which Quinn makes any changes that have been decided on. Tuesday morning the entire cast, including Billy Mils' orchestra, rehearse about four times, concluding with a complete run-through about three o'clock. At five-thirty, Pacific time, they go on the air. And this program of preparation never varies by much more than an hour from week to week. The whole atmosphere of their broadcast is simple, friendly, homey—in fact, it justifies that often-misused phrase "One big happy family".

text: Show format[edit]

text: For most of the show's history, the usual order of the show is the Introduction followed by a Johnson Wax plug by Harlow then his introduction to Section 1 of the script (usually 11 minutes). Billy Mills usually follows with an instrumental (or accompanied by Martha Tilton in 1941[20]). That musical interlude then segues to Section 2 of the script, followed by a performance by the vocal group The Kings Men (occasionally featuring a solo by leader Ken Darby). The final act then ensues, with the last line usually showing the lesson learned that day, a final commercial, and then Billy Mills' theme song to fade. Later, Harlow would meet up and visit with the McGees and work in a Johnson Wax commercial, sometimes assisted by Fibber and Molly.

text: Running gags[edit]

text: Much of the show's humor relied on recurring gags, unseen regulars and punch lines that sometimes popped up here and there for years. The show would usually open the 30-minute broadcast with the audience in full laughter with Harlow Wilcox announcing, "The Johnson Wax Program with Fibber McGee and Molly!" In the episode of December 19, 1944, "Fibber Snoops For Presents In Closet" (at 3:59 is a perfect example of the "Hall Closet", a running gag described in detail later in this entry), Jim Jordan can be caught at the end of his audience warm-up evoking the opening laughter by quipping, "10 seconds? Oh, we got a lot of.... Ooooo!"

text: When McGee tells a bad joke, Molly often answers with the line "T'ain't funny, McGee!", which became a familiar catchphrase during the 1940s.[21] Molly's Uncle Dennis is one of the more common rarely heard regulars. He lives with the McGees and is apparently a dedicated alcoholic, becoming a punch line for many Fibber jokes and even the main subject of some shows in which he "disappeared".

text: There are numerous references and jokes about the fact that Fibber doesn't have a regular job. Mayor La Trivia often offers McGee jobs at City Hall, and the jobs usually sound exciting when the duties are vaguely described; but they sometimes end up being very mundane. For instance, a job "looking in on the higher-ups at City Hall" turns out to be a window-cleaning job. Another interesting assignment was for Fibber to work in disguise for days at a time as the Wistful Vista Santa Claus.

text: McGee is very proud of past deeds, sometimes recalling an interesting nickname he picked up over the years. Each one of these nicknames is, as usual with Fibber, a bad pun. When someone told a man named Addison that McGee was a glib talker, McGee became known as "Ad Glib McGee". Or, when Fibber made expressions with his eyes, he was nicknamed "Eyes-a-muggin' McGee" (a play on the popular Stuff Smith swing tune "I'se A-muggin'"). From there Fibber jumps headfirst into a long, breathless and boastful description of his nickname, using an admirable amount of alliteration.

text: Mentioned for a time on the program was Otis Cadwallader, who was a schoolmate of Fibber and Molly in Peoria and Molly's boyfriend before McGee. Fibber has a long-standing grudge against Otis, making him out to seem like a self-centered, overblown hack, even though seemingly everyone else sees Cadwallader as a lovely, dashing man. Otis's feelings toward Fibber are never mentioned, giving the impression that Fibber's grudge is one-sided. As revealed late in 1942, Fibber's anger is actually a front to keep Cadwallader away, as Fibber once borrowed money from Otis and never paid it back.

text: The "corner of 14th and Oak" in downtown Wistful Vista was routinely given as a location for various homes, places of business and government buildings throughout the show's run.

text: Whenever someone asks the time it's always half-past.

text: McGee has a reputation for telling tall tales, and there are occasional jokes linking this propensity to his name "Fibber". In the episode "Fibber Changes His Name" (March 25, 1941), he goes so far as to claim that "Fibber" is his actual given name and not just a nickname. According to McGee, "I was named after my fourth cousin, Walpole J. Fimmer .. but the minister who christened me had a cold in his head."

text: The Hall Closet[edit]

text: None of the show's running gags was as memorable or enduring as The Hall Closet (so popular, in fact, that PBS's Zoboomafoo kept the joke alive). The gag involved McGee's frequently opening a cacophonous closet, with the bric-a-brac it contained clattering down and out and, often enough, over McGee's or Molly's heads. "I gotta get that closet cleaned out one of these days" was the usual McGee observation once the racket subsided. Naturally, "one of these days" almost never arrived. A good thing, too: in one famous instance, when a burglar (played by Bob Bruce) tied up McGee, McGee informed him cannily that the family's silver was "right through that door, bud... just yank it open, bud!" Naturally, the burglar took the bait and naturally, he was buried in the inevitable avalanche, long enough for the police to apprehend him.

text: This gag appears to have begun with the March 5, 1940, show, "Cleaning the Closet". Molly opens the closet looking for the dictionary and is promptly buried in Fibber's "stuff" ("arranged in there just the way I want it"). Cleaning out the closet becomes the show's plot, inventorying much of the contents along the way: a photo album, a rusty horseshoe, a ten-foot pole. After repacking the closet, Fibber realizes the dictionary has been put away too — and he opens the closet again, causing an avalanche. This episode also features a cameo by Gracie Allen, running for president on the Surprise Party ticket. Toward the end of the September 30, 1941 show, "Back from Vacation; Gildy Says Goodbye", next-door nemesis Gildersleeve --- who has moved to Summerfield to finish raising his orphaned niece and nephew (and already begun his successful spin-off show The Great Gildersleeve) -- has come back to Wistful Vista to wind up his affairs there. In a farewell to the show that made him famous, Gildersleeve opens the closet to be buried in the usual avalanche.

text: On at least one occasion, the gag is flipped, and the closet is silent: in "Man's Untapped Energies" (broadcast March 11, 1947), visiting Dr. Gamble makes to leave. Molly warns, "No, Doctor, not through that door, that's the hall closet!" As the audience chuckles slightly in anticipation, Fibber explains: "Oh, I forgot to tell you, Molly, I straightened out the hall closet this morning!" This was certainly not the end of the gag, though, as the closet soon became cluttered once again, leading to many more disasters.

text: Like many such trademarks, the clattering closet began as a one-time stunt, but "the closet" was developed carefully, not being overused (it rarely appeared in more than two consecutive installments, though it never disappeared for the same length, either, at the height of its identification, and it rarely collapsed at exactly the same time from show to show), and it became the best-known running sound gag in American radio's classic period. Jack Benny's basement vault alarm ran a distant second. Both of these classic sound effects were performed by Ed Ludes and Virgil Rhymer, the Hollywood-based NBC staff sound effects creators. Exactly what tumbled out of McGee's closet each time was never clear (except to these sound-effects men), but what signaled the end of the avalanche was always the same sound: a clear, tiny, household hand bell and McGee's inevitable post-collapse lament.[6] "Fibber McGee's closet" entered the American vernacular as a catchphrase synonymous with household clutter.

text: Sponsors[edit]

text: Each episode also featured an appearance by announcer Harlow Wilcox, whose job it was to weave the second ad for the sponsor into the plot without having to break the show for a real commercial. Wilcox's introductory pitch lines were usually met with groans or humorously sarcastic lines by Fibber. During the many years that the show was sponsored by Johnson Wax, Fibber nicknamed Wilcox "Waxy", due to Wilcox's constant praises of their various products, and during the years the show was sponsored by Pet Milk, Fibber changed the nickname to "Milky". In a style not unusual for the classic radio years, the show was typically introduced as, "The Johnson Wax Program, with Fibber McGee and Molly". Johnson Wax sponsored the show through 1950; Pet Milk through 1952; and, until the show's final half-hour episode in mid-1953, Reynolds Aluminum. Fibber sometimes referred to Harlow as "Harpo".

text: The show also used two musical numbers per episode to break the comedy routines into sections. For most of the show's run, there would be one vocal number by The King's Men (a vocal quartet: Ken Darby, Rad Robinson, Jon Dodson, and Bud Linn), and an instrumental by The Billy Mills Orchestra. For a short time in the early 1940s, Martha Tilton would sing what was formerly the instrumental.

text: Before and during America's involvement in World War II, references to or about the war and the members of the Axis Powers were commonplace on the show. Just after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Jim Jordan, out of character, soberly ended the Fibber McGee show by inviting the studio audience to sing "America". During the show of December 9, the Mayor is seeking a globe in order to keep up with current events. Molly asks him, "Do you want one with Japan on it?" The mayor says, "Why, of course." "Then you better get one quick," Molly says, receiving thunderous applause from the studio audience.

text: Also commonplace were calls to action to buy war bonds (both through announcements and subtle references written into the script), and condemnation of food and supply hoarding. On the other hand, the Jordans gladly cooperated in turning the show over to a half-hour devoted entirely to patriotic music on the day of the D-Day invasion in 1944, with the couple speaking only at the opening and the closing of the broadcast. This show remains available to collectors amidst many a Fibber McGee and Molly packaging.

text: When the shows were broadcast overseas by the Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS), all three commercials were eliminated from the program. Harlow Wilcox's middle ad was edited out, and the two advertisements at the beginning and end of the show were replaced by musical numbers, so that the show on AFRS would have two numbers by Billy Mills and the Orchestra, and two by The King's Men.

text: The Jordans were experts at transforming the ethnic humor of vaudeville into more rounded comic characters, no doubt due in part to the affection felt for the famous supporting cast members who voiced these roles, including Bill Thompson (as the Old Timer and Wimple), Harold Peary (as Gildersleeve), Gale Gordon (as La Trivia), Arthur Q. Bryan (as Dr. Gamble; Bryan also voiced Elmer Fudd for the Warner Brothers Looney Tunes cartoons, which also borrowed lines from Fibber McGee and Molly from time to time), Isabel Randolph (as Mrs. Uppington), Marlin Hurt (a white male who played in dialect the McGee's maid, Beulah), and others. They were also expert at their own running gags and catchphrases, many of which entered the American vernacular: "That ain't the way I heeard it!"; "'T'ain't funny, McGee!" and "Heavenly days!" were the three best known.

text: Spin-offs[edit]

text: Fibber McGee and Molly spun two supporting characters off into their own shows. By far the most successful and popular was Harold Peary's Gildersleeve, spun into The Great Gildersleeve in 1941.[22] This show introduced single parenthood of a sort to creative broadcasting: the pompous, previously married Gildersleeve now moved to Summerfield, became single (although the missing wife was never explained), and raised his orphaned, spirited niece and nephew, while dividing his time between running his manufacturing business and (eventually) becoming the town water commissioner.[4] In one episode, the McGees arrived in Summerfield for a visit with their old neighbor with hilarious results: McGee inadvertently learns Gildersleeve is engaged, and he practically needs to be chloroformed to perpetuate the secret a little longer.

text: Peary returned the favor in a memorable 1944 Fibber McGee & Molly episode in which neither of the title characters appeared: Jim Jordan was recovering from a bout of pneumonia (this would be written into the show the following week, when the Jordans returned), and the story line involved Gildersleeve and nephew Leroy hoping to visit the McGees at home during a train layover in Wistful Vista, but finding Fibber and Molly not at home. At the end of the episode, Gildersleeve discovers the couple had left in a hurry that morning when they received Gildy's letter saying he would be stopping over in Wistful Vista.

text: Marlin Hurt's Beulah was also spun off, leading to both a radio and television show that would eventually star Hattie McDaniel and Ethel Waters.

text: Jim and Marian Jordan themselves occasionally appeared on other programs, away from their Fibber and Molly characters.[9] One memorable episode of Suspense ("Backseat Driver", 02-03-1949) cast the Jordans as victims of a car-jacking; Jim Jordan's tense, interior monologues were especially dramatic.

text: Films[edit]

text: The Jordans portrayed their characters in four movies. In the early years of the radio show, they were supporting characters in the 1937 Paramount film This Way Please,[23] starring Charles "Buddy" Rogers and Betty Grable. Once the show hit its stride, they had leading roles in the RKO Radio Pictures films Look Who's Laughing (1941), Here We Go Again (1942), and Heavenly Days (1944).

text: The first two RKO films are generally considered the best, as they co-star fellow radio stars Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy. Harold Peary also appears in both as Gildersleeve, with Arthur Q. Bryan, Bill Thompson, Harlow Wilcox, Gale Gordon, and Isabel Randolph appearing in both their show roles and as other characters. Bill Thompson in Look Who's Laughing played two parts: The pushy sales-man, and the man who shouted "It's Hillary Horton". Gale Gordon played Otis Cadwalader, Molly's ex-boyfriend in Here We Go Again. Arthur Q. Bryan played the Mayor's aide in Look Who's Laughing. The Jordans' participation in Look Who's Laughing was set up in the Fibber McGee & Molly episode "Amusement Park" (6/17/41), in which Gale Gordon played an RKO pictures representative who followed the McGees around the amusement park and chose the McGees as a representative American couple to star in a movie with Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy. The day before the film's real-life premiere in San Francisco, the movie had its fictional opening in Wistful Vista during that week's radio episode, and Bergen and McCarthy made a guest appearance ("Premiere of Look Who's Laughing" (11/11/41)).

text: Look Who's Laughing has been released on VHS and DVD as part of the Lucille Ball RKO Collection. Here We Go Again has been released on VHS and was released on DVD on January 14, 2014, through Warner Archives. Heavenly Days was also included in the January 2014 DVD release of Here We Go Again as part of a "double feature" DVD. Look Who's Laughing, Here We Go Again and Heavenly Days have been featured on Turner Classic Movies.

text: In addition to the feature films, the McGees appeared in character in the 1945 film The All-Star Bond Rally, a promotional film for war bonds. The characters appear as bookends to the film, attending a stage presentation hosted by Bob Hope, who knows and recognizes them. The All-Star Bond Rally lapsed into the public domain in 1973 and is widely available.

text: Other films featured the McGees' neighbors. The first film was called Comin' Round the Mountain (1940) and featured the McGees' neighbors The Old-Timer (played by Bill Thompson) and Gildersleeve, as the mayor of the town. Gildersleeve's character was in many other films before The Great Gildersleeve show and movies. Abigale Uppington is in the film County Fair along with Harold Peary, and his future radio show co-star Shirley Mitchell (who also played Leila Ransom in The Great Gildersleeve); the Uppington character also appeared in Barnyard Follies.

text: Television[edit]

text: The Jordans, throughout their time on radio, had resisted bringing their show to television. "They were trying to push us into TV, and we were reluctant," Jim Jordan told an interviewer many years later. "Our friends advised us, 'Don't do it until you need to. You have this value in radio—milk it dry.'"

text: Finally, after the last of the Just Molly and Me shorts ceased production, an attempt at getting the McGees onto television came in September 1959. The Fibber McGee and Molly TV series was produced by William Asher for NBC (and co-sponsored by Singer Corporation and Standard Brands). As Marian Jordan was too ill to reprise her role, the decision was made to recast both roles, with younger actors Bob Sweeney and Cathy Lewis as Fibber and Molly respectively; Lewis had previously played Jane Stacy, a very similar straight-woman character, on the radio version of My Friend Irma. The only radio alumnus to appear as a regular cast member was Harold Peary, who took the role of Mayor La Trivia.[24]

text: The television show was unable to recreate the flavor and humor of the radio version and did not survive its first season, ending its run in January 1960. A pilot episode and at least three episodes of the television series have lapsed into the public domain.

text: Changes[edit]

text: In 1953, Marian Jordan's periodic health problems necessitated the shortening of Fibber McGee and Molly into a nightly fifteen-minute program, recorded without a studio audience in single sessions, the better to enable Jordan to rest. This timing was sadly appropriate, as classic radio had entered its dying days. Still, the McGees remained favorite presences on radio even after the quarter-hour edition ended in 1956, appearing in shorts from 1957 to 1959 on the NBC's Monitor radio program as Just Molly and Me.

text: Radio historian Gerald S. Nachman has written that the Jordans anticipated renewing their contract with NBC for another three years when Marian's battle against ovarian cancer ended with her death in 1961. In the 1970s, Jim Jordan briefly returned to acting. An episode of NBC's Chico and the Man featured a surprise appearance by Jordan as a friendly neighborhood mechanic. Jordan also lent his voice to Disney's animated film, The Rescuers (1977) and reprised his role as Fibber McGee (complete with the closet gag) in an advertisement for AARP. He died in 1988—a year before Fibber McGee and Molly was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame.

text: Jim Jordan married Gretchen Stewart (the widow of Yogi Yorgesson) after Marian's death. Gretchen and the Jordan children donated the manuscripts of Smackout and Fibber McGee and Molly to Chicago's Museum of Broadcast Communications after his death in 1988.[4][25] Perhaps fittingly for his longtime radio alter ego, Jordan died on April Fool's Day.

text: The show has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame next to the NBC studios where the show was performed.[6] The S.C. Johnson Company has preserved more than 700 shows it sponsored for fifteen years.[citation needed]

text: Wikimedia Commons has media related to Fibber McGee and Molly.

tag: table


document_title: So Happy (song)

question_text: who is the girl in theory of a deadman so happy video

text: So Happy (song)

text: This article does not cite any sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text:
"So Happy"

Single by Theory of a Deadman

from the album Scars & Souvenirs

Released
February 11, 2008 (2008-02-11)

Format

CD
Radio single
Digital download

Recorded
September 2007

Genre

Post-grunge
Alternative metal

Length
4:14

Label

Roadrunner
604

Songwriter(s)

Tyler Connolly
Dave Brenner
Dean Back

Producer(s)
Howard Benson

Theory of a Deadman singles chronology

"Since You've Been Gone"
(2006)
"So Happy"
(2008)
"Bad Girlfriend"
(2008)

text: "So Happy" is a single by Theory of a Deadman, and the first to be released from their third album Scars & Souvenirs. It was officially released to radio on February 11, 2008, although many rock stations in the United States added it to their rotations earlier. "So Happy" debuted on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks chart on February 9, 2008, and peaked at #2 on April 5, 2008. The song needed only three weeks to become a top-10 hit on the Mainstream Rock chart, making it their fastest top-10 entry to date. It is also the band's first top-20 hit on the Modern Rock Tracks chart. In Canada, it debuted (and peaked) at #58 on the Canadian Hot 100 on March 8, 2008.

text: The song features Shinedown vocalist Brent Smith performing backing vocals.

text: Music video[edit]

text: The music video first aired on MuchMusic in the middle of April 2008. It peaked on the MuchMusic Countdown at #10.

text: The video features Serinda Swan and was directed by Colin Minihan.

text: Chart positions[edit]

text:
Chart (2008)
Peak
position

Canadian Hot 100
58

U.S. Mainstream Rock Tracks
2

U.S. Modern Rock Tracks
17

text:
[hide]

v
t
e

Theory of a Deadman

Studio albums

Theory of a Deadman
Gasoline
Scars & Souvenirs
The Truth Is...
Savages
Wake Up Call

EPs

Angel Acoustic EP

Singles

"Nothing Could Come Between Us"
"Make Up Your Mind"
"No Surprise"
"Say Goodbye"
"Santa Monica"
"So Happy"
"Bad Girlfriend"
"All or Nothing"
"Hate My Life"
"Not Meant to Be"
"By the Way"
"Drown"
"Savages"
"Angel"
"Rx (Medicate)"
"Straight Jacket"

Related articles

Brent Fitz
Discography

text: Theory of a Deadman songs2007 songs2008 singles604 Records singlesSongs written by Tyler ConnollySong recordings produced by Howard Benson

text: Articles lacking sources from April 2011All articles lacking sourcesArticles with hAudio microformats